Brooks Koepka beat Talor Gooch in a play-off to win LIV Jeddah, but the runner-up claimed £14.8m as the season’s overall champion.
Five-time major winner Koepka hit a two-under 68 to finish on 14 under par after three rounds at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in Saudi Arabia. He was reeled in by fellow American Gooch’s 62, but won the play-off with a birdie at the second extra hole.
Koepka earned £3.3m for the win and a further $4m for finishing third in the overall season’s standings.
Gooch had been going for a fourth tournament win of the season after back-to-back victories in Adelaide and Singapore in April and the Andalusia event at Valderrama in July, but by the time he had drawn level with Koepka to force the play-off, his multi-million-dollar victory in the overall standings had already been confirmed.
“I’ve always felt that I was good enough to be a professional golfer and play against the best in the world,” said Gooch. “Now to be here to, I think, consider myself one of the best in the world, it’s what I’ve been dreaming about since I was nine years old. To get to this point in my career and to have this validating of a season, words can’t describe how much it means and just how satisfying it is.”
Cameron Smith, who led the individual season’s standings coming into the Saudi event, dropped into second behind Gooch after finishing 25th in Jeddah.
The $3m team event in the Saudi capital was won by Sergio Garcia’s Fireballs GC, who will be going into next week’s Team Championship in Miami in top form and bidding to claim the season’s team title.
Following the conclusion of the LIV Golf League’s individual series, four players have been relegated. They were Jediah Morgan, James Piot, Chase Koepka and Sihwan Kim. Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer were among those players in the bottom four in the season’s rankings, but as team captains were exempt from relegation. All four of the relegated players have the opportunity to play their way back into LIV at the Promotions tournament later this year but, with only three spots available, at least one of them will miss out.
LIV GOLF LEAGUE 2023 FINAL STANDINGS (top 10)
1. Talor Gooch, RangeGoats GC
2. Cameron Smith, Ripper GC Captain
3. Brooks Koepka, Smash GC Captain
4. Bryson DeChambeau, Crushers GC Captain
5. Dustin Johnson, 4Aces GC Captain
6. Patrick Reed, 4Aces GC
7. Harold Varner III, RangeGoats GC
8. Mito Pereira, Torque GC
9. Branden Grace, Stinger GC
10. Charles Howell III, Crushers GC